Enhanced unified messaging system with a quick view facility

ABSTRACT

This invention provides an enhancement to messaging systems by providing a message notification feature which allows a user to manage only new messages for which a notification has not yet been cleared without having to access or download the entire set of messages. This management may be performed in single window that operates in conjunction with an application associated with the messaging system. The notification management permits manipulation of the message notifications without influencing the status of the messages themselves, while providing access to the data contained in these messages. This addresses the needs of those users who frequently check their incoming communications queues and need to determine very quickly which items need urgent attention and which ones can be deferred. The present invention further provides specific functionalities for handling a particular message when it does need urgent attention.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to messaging systems as well as featuresused therein to provide notification of various types of messages thatare available to a user.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Messaging systems such as computer telephony messaging, unifiedmessaging and unified communication systems are used in order to managedifferent types of messages that may be sent to a particular user. Anexample of such a system is the CallPilot™ desktop unified messagingcommunication system by Nortel Networks™. The messages in such a systemmay be voice, facsimile, electronic mail, video or data messages. Thecomplex relationships between various competing messages and the clientexpectations associated therewith require an efficient management of anumber of different message types which may arrive simultaneously. Forinstance, in some situations it is often desirable to initiate immediateresponse on certain incoming messages while others may not requireimmediate response. These types of situations may arise in such placesas hospital emergency rooms, stock brokerage firms, air traffic controlcenters, shipping and receiving areas, etc.

In prior art systems, a telephone system may present a list ofnotifications of messages that are waiting for a particular user. Manysuch systems incorporate notifications of messages sent to the user overa system other than the telephone system, such as an electronic mailsystem. The user can clear the system-provided notificationsindividually or all at once. Such messaging systems, however, offereither no access or limited access to the messages themselves.

Many of the existing systems tend to focus on either voice message orelectronic mail management, but generally not both. These systemsgenerally sort messages into a variety of categories based on theirstatus, such as “old”, “saved”, “read” or “new”. The “new” messages arecontinually presented to the user in the message list until the userchooses to deal with them. Moreover, it is sometimes necessary toretrieve a set of messages in their entirety in order to simply verifyif a particularly important message has been received. As such, thesesystems tend to be focused on managing all of the messages that may becontained in a user's mailbox, which is not convenient for situationsmentioned earlier where immediate action on certain incoming messages isnecessary. Furthermore, such existing systems do not well integratee-mail, voice mail, and calls with no message attached.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of managingonly new messages or those messages for which a notification has not yetbeen cleared without having to access or download the entire set ofmessages. According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided amessaging system having integrated therewith a message notificationmeans, said message notification means comprising: memory means forstoring notification status for messages in said messaging system; auser interface for providing to a user a list of new messages for whicha notification has not been cleared; said message notification meanspermitting the user to select a particular notification from said listfor manipulation.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a methodof enhancing a messaging system, said method comprising the steps of:providing a message notification application integrated with a messagingapplication of said messaging system; identifying a set of new messagesfor which a notification has not been cleared; presenting, to a user bysaid message notification means, a list of said set of new messages viaa user interface; and permitting said user to select a particularmessage notification from said list for manipulation.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided amessage notification means for use with one or more messaging systems,said message notification means comprising: polling means for pollingsaid one or more messaging systems for new messages; memory means forstoring notification status for messages in said messaging system andfor storing a variable relating to each message; a user interface forproviding to a user a list of new messages for which a notification hasnot been cleared; said message notification means permitting the user toselect a particular notification from said list for manipulation.

According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided amethod of providing message notifications to a user, said user havingaccess to one or more messaging systems, said method comprising thesteps of providing a message notification means for use with said one ormore messaging systems; polling said one or more messaging systems, bysaid message notification means, for new messages; identifying a set ofnew messages for which a notification has not been cleared; presenting,to said user by said message notification means, a list of said set ofnew messages via a user interface; and permitting said user to select aparticular message notification from said list for manipulation.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided amessage notification means for use with one or more messaging systems,said message notification means comprising: receiving means forreceiving indications from said one or more messaging systems regardingthe presence of new messages therein; memory means for storingnotification status for each message in said messaging system; a userinterface for providing to a user a list of new messages for which anotification has not been cleared; said message notification meanspermitting the user to select a particular notification from said listfor manipulation.

According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided amethod of providing message notifications to a user, said user havingaccess to one or more messaging systems, said method comprising thesteps of: providing a message notification means for use with said oneor more messaging systems; receiving, at a receiving means within saidmessage notification means, indications from said one or more messagingsystems regarding the presence of new messages therein; identifying aset of new messages for which a notification has not been cleared;presenting, to said user by said message notification means, a list ofsaid set via a user interface; and permitting said user to select aparticular message notification from said list for manipulation.

The advantages of the present invention include the ability to managenew messages, from a variety of message media, for which a notificationhas not been cleared in a single window that operates in conjunctionwith a main messaging system. The notification management permitsmanipulation of the message notifications without influencing the statusof the messages themselves, while still providing access to the datacontained in these messages.

In particular, the present invention provides a method of enhancingmessaging systems which addresses the needs of those users whofrequently check their incoming communications queues and need todetermine very quickly which items need urgent attention and which onescan be deferred. The present invention further provides specificfunctionalities for handling a particular message when it does needurgent attention. For example, the present invention allows the user toquickly return telephone calls where the need to speak to the person ismore imperative than hearing the voice message received.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be further described, byway of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a basic layout of a user interface employed with amessage notification management system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention; and

FIG. 2 illustrates the user interface of FIG. 1 showing the availablemenu options.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an enhancement to messaging handlingcapabilities available in existing messaging systems. This isaccomplished by incorporating an additional application module thatalerts and allows a user to quickly view notifications of new messagesfor which a notification has not been cleared.

This application module, hereinafter referred to as “quick view”, ispreferably provided to the user by means of a graphical user interface(GUI). This GUI can be presented on any number of suitable devices suchas, but not limited to a desktop or laptop computer; a portableelectronic device such as 3Com's Palm™ series or Research in Motion'sBlackberry™ series; any other device operating on an operating systemsuch as WindowsCE™, PalmOS™ or Java. Although the preferred embodimentemploys a graphical user interface, it is equally possible to use thepresent invention with any of the variety of text user interfacesavailable such as those written in Wireless Markup Language (WML) on aWireless Access Protocol (WAP) compliant telephone. It is also possibleto use the present invention with known telephony user interfaces.

The quick view application module and the main messaging system,preferably a unified messaging system, can share the same messagingdata. The enhanced functionality of viewing only those new messages forwhich a notification has not been cleared empowers the user to managesuch messages quickly and efficiently. This may be achieved in a userfriendly manner in which a given message notification can be opened,cleared from view or the sender can be called for a response by using,for example, standard graphical manipulation on a computer screen bymeans of point-and-click operations on a variety of menu choices andbuttons.

FIG. 1 shows a basic view of an embodiment of the quick viewnotification application. The figure illustrates the main notificationviewer window, along with a menu bar on the top and a row offunctionality buttons on the bottom. The main notification viewer listsonly notifications for messages that are new and for which anotification has not been cleared. Within the main notification viewerwindow, a list of sample message notifications 1 is displayed. This listindicates the type of message for which a notification is beingprovided, along with a corresponding icon. The highlighted samplemessage in FIG. 1 is one that has been selected b_(y) the user forpotential manipulation using any one of the features indicated onfunctionality buttons 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9. The selection of one ofthese buttons may be performed by clicking on the button with a computermouse pointer, selecting it with a series of keystrokes on a keyboard,or by means of any other similar selection device.

Selecting “Clear Item” button 2 will clear a selected messagenotification item from the quick view application. This feature permitsthe user to clear the notification of the selected message withoutdeleting the message itself from the unified messaging system. Selecting“Call Sender” button 3 will enable the user to rapidly respond to amessage notification. This permits the user to respond immediately tothe sender of the selected message without the necessity of reading,hearing or seeing the entire contents of the message. Selecting “Open”button 5 enables the user to quickly play back the selected message, inthe case of a voice or video message, or to display the selectedmessage, in the case of a text, facsimile or electronic mail message.

Selecting “Open CallPilot” button 7 will launch the full functionalityof the unified messaging application provided with the unified messagingsystem. This button can generally be referred to as an “open messagingapplication” button, and the button may be customized so as to reflectthe name of the particular application being employed. In this case,reference is made to an embodiment wherein pressing this button willopen the CallPilot unified messaging application mentioned earlier. Byway of this button, the user is given not only access to the selectedmessage for which the notification is given, but also to all of theadded features that are normally associated with the unified messagingapplication. Selecting “Clear All” button 8 will clear the entire listof message notifications. Selecting “Print” button 9 permits the user toprint on paper a facsimile or electronic mail message without having toopen the message itself or change the status of the message or itsnotification.

FIG. 2 illustrates a comprehensive view of a quick view applicationwindow that is similar to FIG. 1, except that all of the menu optionsavailable by way of the menu bar choices are shown. “Option” menu 4enables the user to select which types of messages are to be included inthe notification list. Selecting a box that corresponds with one of thelisted menu items will instruct the quick view application to includethat type of message in the message notification window. “File” menu 6enables the user to exit the quick view application by selecting the“Close” menu option, as illustrated in FIG. 2.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the quick view application isintegrated with a unified messaging application from which the quickview application may be launched. This may be achieved, for example, byselecting an option from a pull-down menu within the unified messagingapplication entitled “Open Quick View”. This selection will launch thequick view notification application in the foreground, with the unifiedmessaging application continuing to function in the background. Inanother embodiment of the present invention, the quick view applicationmay be integrated within the unified messaging application itself anddesignated as a particular view style. This particular view style wouldbe seamlessly integrated within the messaging application. This would besimilar to the availability of ‘normal’ and ‘page layout’ view styles inword processing applications. As such, the user would be able to togglebetween the quick view and the standard view within the messagingapplication.

Table 1 below provides sample messages and their attributes in order tomore clearly explain how the two integrated embodiments of the presentinvention may determine which message notifications to display in thequick view list.

TABLE 1 Unified Messaging with Integrated Quick View Window NotificationMsg. No. New Cleared 1 N Y 2 Y Y 3 Y N 4 Y N

Of the messages listed in Table 1, only messages 3 and 4 would bepresented in the quick view window since both are new and neither hashad its notification cleared. Message 1 has been read and itsnotification has been cleared; therefore, it would show up in a messagelist as read, but would not appear in the quick view application.Message 2 has not been read, but its notification has been cleared.(This may be accomplished by setting a notification bit within thesystem to a value of “1”.) Message 2 would show up in a message list asnew, but would not appear in the quick view application. As soon as theuser clears the notification for either of messages 3 or 4, thenotification bit would be turned on (i.e. set to a value of 1), and themessage would no longer appear in the list in the quick view applicationwindow.

In an alternate embodiment, a user could activate the quick viewapplication as a standalone software notification application,independent of a unified messaging application.

In this alternate embodiment, the quick view application is involved inpolling the unified messaging system for new messages. Table 2 providessample messages and their attributes in order to more clearly explainhow this standalone embodiment of the present invention may determinewhich message notifications to display in the quick view list.

TABLE 2 The Quick View Window in a Standalone Environment MESSAGINGSYSTEM QUICK VIEW APPLICATION Msg. No. New Msg. ID No. 1 N 2 Y 3 Y 3 4 Y4 Last Notified Message Date = date for No. 4

Table 2 is somewhat similar to Table 1. The standalone implementation ofthe quick view application maintains a list of new messages whosenotification has not been cleared by assigning a quick view messageidentification to them. In addition, the quick view applicationmaintains a variable containing the date, time and sequence of eachmessage.

Therefore, if the notification for message 3 were to be cleared, thatnotification would be removed from the quick view message identificationlist. The quick view application would periodically poll or check theunified messaging system, or other systems, to see if any new messageshave arrived since the last notified messaging date. Also, the quickview application would verify that messages in its quick view messageidentification list had not been deleted or read on the unifiedmessaging system. Protocols such as Internet Message Access Protocol(IMAP) are well known in the art and can be used to poll the unifiedmessaging system for new messages, as well as to ascertain changes tothe status of existing messages.

A further embodiment is possible in the case of the quick viewapplication in another standalone environment. In this otherenvironment, one or more messaging systems notify the quick viewapplication of the presence of new messages. This “push”-type technologyis in contrast to the “pull”-type technology exemplified by the pollingexample in the previous standalone embodiment. Table 3 provides samplemessages and their attributes in order to more clearly explain how thisother standalone embodiment of the present invention may determine whichmessage notifications to display in the quick view list.

TABLE 3 The Quick View Window in Another Standalone Environment MessageSystem Quick View Application Msg. No. New Msg. ID No. 1 N 2 Y 3 Y 3 4 Y4

Table 3 shows a message attribute structure somewhat similar to that ofthe polling case. However, since it is the messaging systems that arenotifying the quick view application of new messages as they arrive, aswell as removals of notifications as messages are read or deleted, thequick view application no longer needs to store the date/time/sequenceof the last notified message. The quick view application merely addsmessage identifications as it is notified, since any “new” messageindication in this embodiment, regardless of date/time, needs to beadded to the list. As in previous embodiments, each notification isdeleted from the quick view when it is cleared by the user.

The relative advantages of the integrated and standalone implementationsare dependent on the particular environment in which they will bedeployed and will take into account factors such as software complexity,vendor interworking, etc. The standalone quick view application may havean advantage in cases wherein a plurality of distinct and heterogeneousmessaging systems need to be monitored. Currently, definitions outliningmodifications to existing protocols such as IMAP are complete and arebeing formalized by standards groups to permit “push” statusnotifications. The standalone embodiments of the quick view applicationwould be ideally suited for use with these modified protocols.

As has been mentioned previously, although a graphical view of messagenotifications is preferred, it should be apparent to one skilled in theart that there would also be advantage in providing this kind offunctionality where only an auditory interface is available, e.g. atelephone, or other speech-activated access to messages. In this case,the graphical list and functions would be replaced by an auditory listand DTMF-activated or spoken commands, both technologies being wellknown. While not as quickly used as a graphical display, it may be themost advantageous solution to mobile users who do not have graphicaltechnology at their disposal.

1.-19. (canceled)
 20. A method of providing notifications of messages toa user, the method comprising: presenting at least one notification ofat least one message to the user via a user interface, each notificationcorresponding to a respective message for which the user has not yetcleared a corresponding notification; receiving via the user interfaceat least one indication from the user that at least one notification isto be cleared; and removing the at least one notification from thepresented notifications without deleting the corresponding messages. 21.The method of claim 20, wherein: presenting at least one notificationcomprises presenting a list of notifications; receiving at least oneindication that at least one notification is to be cleared comprisesreceiving an indication that a selected notification is to be cleared;and removing the at least one notification comprises removing theselected notification.
 22. The method of claim 21, further comprisingenabling the user to access content of a message corresponding to aselected notification via the user interface.
 23. The method of claim21, wherein the messages are of at least one message type selected froma group comprising voice messages, facsimile messages, electronic mailmessages, text messages, video messages and data messages.
 24. Themethod of claim 21, wherein the messages are of at least two messagetypes selected from a group comprising voice messages, facsimilemessages, electronic mail messages, text messages, video messages anddata messages.
 25. The method of claim 24, further comprising: pollingat least one message system for information on incoming messages for theuser.
 26. The method of claim 20, further comprising enabling the userto respond to a message corresponding to a selected notification via theuser interface.
 27. The method of claim 20, further comprising:receiving information on incoming messages for the user from at leastone message system; and generating notifications of messages based onthe received information.
 28. The method of claim 20, wherein presentingat least one notification of at least one message to the user via a userinterface comprises presenting the at least one notification via agraphical user interface, the graphical user interface displaying thenotifications with corresponding icons denoting types of thecorresponding messages.
 29. The method of claim 20, wherein presentingat least one notification of at least one message to the user via a userinterface comprises presenting the at least one notification via anauditory user interface.
 30. An application module for providingnotifications of messages to a user, the application module comprisinginstructions stored on a non-transitory medium, the instructionscomprising instructions executable by a processor: to present at leastone notification of at least one message to the user via a userinterface, each notification corresponding to a respective message forwhich the user has not yet cleared a corresponding notification; toreceive via the user interface at least one indication from the userthat at least one notification is to be cleared; and to remove the atleast one notification from the presented notifications without deletingthe corresponding messages.
 31. The application module of claim 30,wherein: the instructions executable to present at least onenotification comprise instructions executable to present a list ofnotifications; the instructions executable to receive at least oneindication that at least one notification is to be cleared compriseinstructions executable to receive an indication that a selectednotification is to be cleared; and the instructions executable to removethe at least one notification comprise instructions executable to removethe selected notification.
 32. The application module of claim 31,wherein the instructions further comprise instructions executable toenable the user to access content of a message corresponding to aselected notification via the user interface.
 33. The application moduleof claim 31, wherein the instructions further comprise instructionsexecutable to enable the user to respond to a message corresponding to aselected notification via the user interface.
 34. The application moduleof claim 31, wherein the messages are of at least one message typeselected from a group comprising voice messages, facsimile messages,electronic mail messages, text messages, video messages and datamessages.
 35. The application module of claim 31, wherein the messagesare of at least two message types selected from a group comprising voicemessages, facsimile messages, electronic mail messages, text messages,video messages and data messages.
 36. The application module of claim30, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions executable:to receive information on incoming messages for the user from at leastone message system; and to generate notifications of messages based onthe received information.
 37. The application module of claim 36,wherein the instructions further comprise instructions executable: topoll at least one message system for information on incoming messagesfor the user.
 38. The application module of claim 30, wherein theinstructions executable to present at least one notification of at leastone message to the user via a user interface comprises presenting thenotifications via a graphical user interface, the graphical userinterface displaying the notifications with corresponding icons denotingtypes of the corresponding messages.
 39. The application module of claim30, wherein the instructions executable to present at least onenotification of at least one message to the user via a user interfacecomprise instructions executable to present the at least onenotification via an auditory user interface.
 40. The application moduleof claim 30, wherein the application module is not incorporated in amessage system, and interfaces with at least one message system.